Chapter 1

Karan

    "Heck! What the heck are you doing here?", I blurt out in anger as soon as I discovered Divya in bridal attire. I can't believe that she is sitting on my bed in red bridal attire. Moreover, she is my wife. Is this happening to me? Nothing can't be worse than this that I'm married to her. I walked away from the bed, frustration clearly visible on my face. 

    "What do you mean by that, Karan? I'm your wife. Am I not supposed be in your room?", she spits, sitting on the bed. My blood boils in anger, hearing her nonsense.

    "Just shut up", I scream. "Don't act like you didn't know anything?"

    "Karan, please don't yell like this. There's everyone around here", she says. 

    "Let them hear. Let them hear that I was tricked. I was cheated on", I shrug, throwing my hands on the air.

    "So you are the one to get cheated on?", she questions as I turn to her. I don't have any answer to her question.

    "Leave that", she says as she climbs down from the bed and walks towards me. I lift my eyes to look at her unwillingly. She had worn an elegant red lehenga with heavy gold jewellery. Her skin tone perfectly matched with the attire. 

I couldn't look at her properly as I was pissed at the wedding ceremony. A week ago, my dad told me that he is looking for a girl regarding my marriage. And he came across a suitor through a matchmaker and wanted me to meet her. I was neither interested to get married nor to know about the girl who was going to be my wife. I declined the proposal of meeting her, telling my dad that his choice would be the best for me, though it wasn't the actual reason. Finally, today at the wedding ceremony, I saw my to be wife for the first time. And heck! She turned out to be Divya, my ex-girlfriend. 

    "Leave? What do you mean by that, Divya? How can I leave it so easily? Didn't you tell me that you're going away from my life for good? Then what the fuck made you come into my life again?", I can hardly control my anger. Despite being nervous, she smiles. That moment, I found her smile to be the most annoying thing in the world. Was I cracking a joke?

    "Don't forget Karan, the alliance came from your family to me. I had just accepted", she blurted out, adjusting her heavy dress with both hands.

    "And why the fuck did you do that? Didn't you know it was me? Then why did you accept the proposal?", I yell at her, failing to control over myself.

    "I can ask you the same question, Karan. Why didn't you reject?", she asks.

    "Because I didn't know it was you", I drove my eyes away from her. I didn't want to see her face as it was freaking me out.

    "Really? Why didn't you try to know who was going to marry you? It was my decision, Karan. You can't question me. It's my life and I have the right to make my decisions. I wanted to marry you. So I did. You should've rejected me as you would be having a problem. As simple as that", she utters. This girl is still the same. She couldn't utter something good except for bullshit. I'm tired of her nonsense.

    "Oh! I forgot how much shameless you are! If you had some self-respect left, you would've never done that. This is what you want right? Revenge?", I spit.

    "Revenge? Really, Karan? You think I got married to you just to take bizarre revenge?", she blurted as if she didn't know anything. 

    "Yes, revenge"

    "Overthinking! You still have this habit?", she chuckled, I could figure out from her voice.

    "Don't. Don't try to fool me", I turned back as our eyes met. She looked into my eyes the way she used to do 4 years ago when we were dating. I used to hate it but she loved doing it. She used to look into my eyes for a long time and at last, I used to join her too. I had never asked her why she had been doing that. But today I feel like to know.

    "I'm not fooling you, Karan", she said in a husky voice, still smiling at me. "I used to love you truly. After the dirty breakup, I could never love anyone more than you", she expressed. I glanced at her in disbelief. Is she still glued to the past? Didn't she move on ever? Am I the only man in her life? Those questions crammed my brain. 

    "I know I may sound dumb. But when the matchmaker came to my house to talk to my bua (parental aunt) I felt a new hope taking birth inside me. I thought maybe it was in our destiny to be together. That's why God had sent that matchmaker to my house with your alliance. I couldn't say 'NO' I had the last opportunity which I didn't want to lose", she says, lowering her eyes. I felt her words pinching to my heart. I never knew this girl loved me so much. Five years have passed, she is still the same, still loving me the way she used to do. But I couldn't love her and I can't love her.

    "When your family approved it, I thought you too wanted the same, that's why you said YES", she mutters in a heavy voice.

    "If I knew, I would say NO", I tell her, being as much rude as I can. She lowers her head. I know my words had hurt her terribly, I used to do the same in the college whenever we got into a fight. But I didn't know that my words still affect her like before.

    "But we can't do anything right now", she didn't look at me again but my eyes didn't move away from her. "I want to give our marriage a chance"

    "You know that's not possible", I barked, walking towards my bed. I was not sure whether I could spend my whole life with her or not. Even I wasn't interested in getting married too. It freaked me more when I discovered her next to me at the wedding itself.

I started removing all the crap rose petals from the bed. She was quietly watching me, expecting me to say something. But I don't try to say anything to her and walked to my closet, pull out my t-shirt and trouser and walked into the washroom. 

I turned on the shower and closed my eyes to wash off all the frustration from my head. 5 hours ago, I didn't even know which turn my life was going to take. Having Divya as my wife was not less than a nightmare. I couldn't stand that girl but I also knew she did nothing wrong to be hated by me. Still, I hate her. The cold water splashes on my body, giving me goosebumps. It took me back to the times when we were in college.

Flashback

5 years ago

    "How about Usha?", Ramit snapped, taking a sip from his cola

    "Fuck off. I hate that girl", I threw a blank look while my eyes were roaming around the canteen. 

    "Kia?", Parthiv came with another option.

    "No ways. I wonder how many guys have already fucked her. I want some decent kind of girl", I giggle.

I, Parthiv and Ramit was passing the leisure time at college canteen while discussing who I should date. The second semester had started and I was still a single af. I had started dating my early teenage. However, after joining the college one year had passed I couldn't make a girlfriend which was freaking me out. 

    "Karan", a sweet-sharp voice hit my ears as I turned around. It was Divya. She smiled at me while waving from 2 feet away.

I noticed her well. She had worn a pink Kurti with white palazzo, keeping her spectacles on. Her hairs were braided like every day. For a while, I kept looking at her in another way. She walked towards me as I stood up.

   "Your Economics notes. Thanks for sharing", she smiled.

   "That's nothing. You've always helped me. I can do it at least", I chuckled.

She passed me another casual smile and turned to go.

   "Divya", I stopped her as she turned back to me.

   "Yes"

   "Will you be my friend?", I proceeded my hand towards her.